Google recently announced a new feature for Google Messages called Magic Compose. This is in beta (early testing phase) and expands their existing Smart Reply feature, which suggests quick replies to make texting easier. Magic Compose will use AI technology to help compose messages and will be powered by Bard’s AI. However, only premium Google One subscribers will have priority access to this feature, which is currently only available in the US.
Magic Compose can generate suggestions based on the context of your conversation. It can suggest responses, rewrite your text, and even change the style of your message to help you compose entire messages. Using a Large Language Model (LLM), Magic Compose can offer suggestions for starting a conversation or providing contextual responses.
Pre-Requirements
- Sign up for the Google Message Beta and Carrier Service Beta programs.
- You must be at least 18 years old to participate. Magic Compose is currently only available in English on Android phones with a US SIM card. Also, you need to have RCS enabled.
- Note: Meeting these requirements does not guarantee access to Magic Compose. However, Google One Premium members will have priority access.
Google’s Magic Compose message.
To use Magic Compose, a feature that provides suggestions for initiating conversations or rewriting messages in a different tone and style, first enable it from the settings menu of the Google Messages app. This feature is only available for RCS conversations in the Google Messages app.
Users need to join the beta program and access several styles, including Remix, Excited, Chill, Shakespeare, Lyrical, Formula, and Short.
Here are the steps to using Magic Compose:
- Open the Google Messages app and start a new message or open an existing one.
- Look for the message suggestion button, a bubble icon with a star in the corner.
- Type a prompt into the message field, and then a bubble with a suggested response will appear.
- Tap on the suggested response to send it.
You can also try different suggestions, transform the tone or style of the conversation with just a few taps, and replace the original typed-out message. Once you are satisfied with the message, you can send it as usual. The message may include emojis, reactions, and URLs from the previous message.
Magic Compose is still in beta, so it may only sometimes be perfect. However, it is designed to save time and improve conversations. The rollout of this feature is gradual and similar to that of the upcoming Google Search Generation Experience. Users will not receive any email notifications, but they will see the message suggestion icon in the conversation when it’s convenient for them.
E2EE was compromised using Google Magic Compose.
End-to-end encryption doesn’t work with Magic Compose because it needs up to 20 of your recent messages sent to Google’s server to generate a response. It analyses your conversation history and suggests contextual phrases or responses by predicting what you want to say next. Sending these messages aims to help Google’s AI generate appropriate response suggestions.
Users should note that attachments, voice messages, and images will not be sent, but image captions and voice transcriptions may be included. You can find more information about Magic Compose and its limitations on Google’s support page for the feature. It is still being determined whether this feature will expand beyond RCS to SMS/MMS, but there is a possibility of changes in the future during the beta launch.
However, the company noted that these messages are discarded and not stored, and suggested outputs are also not retained or used for training AI models. Once suggestions are generated, Google discards the messages from the servers. This means users must decide between the security of E2EE and the convenience of AI-powered responses to their RCS chat.
Recently, Microsoft Keyboard also received a SwiftKey update with a similar feature. You can select the Bing icon on the app’s toolbar to compose text messages and emails, allowing you to change the tone, format, and length of the suggested message. This is available for Android and iOS devices but is currently in beta.